Protective garments, such as hazard or chemical suits are well known in the art, and are typically worn by a user for protection from a potentially hazardous environment. One type of protective garment is self-contained and wholly encapsulates the user, such that potential leak paths or openings are minimized. For example, a one-piece protective garment may include a zipper or other closing mechanism that allows the user to step into the garment and then close the garment, thereby encapsulating the user. Another such example may be a two-piece protective garment, wherein a lower piece includes a feet and legs portion of the suit, while an upper piece includes a torso, a head, arms, and hands portions of the protective garment. The user may attach the upper and lower portions together via a closing mechanism to thereby, encapsulate the user.
Self-contained or wholly encapsulating garments, however, have some undesirable limitations. For example, a rip or a tear in the garment typically requires that the entire garment, or a large portion of the garment be replaced. Also, if the user is already wearing a gas mask, the user either has to remove the gas mask to wear the protective garment, which may expose the user to a hazardous environment, or the user has to wear the hazard suit over the gas mask, which may be cumbersome and may obstruct the view of the user as the user has to look through both a visor of the gas mask and a viewing window in the protective garment.
There are, however, multi-piece protective garments having a protective material or a suit portion that includes holes, openings, or gaps intentionally made for connecting other portions of the protective garment or objects to the protective garment. For example, a multi-piece protective garment may have boots, gloves, a hood, a mask or other features that may be removably connected to a body portion of the protective garment before use in hazardous conditions. Similarly, protective garments may have features that enable hoses, cables, or other objects to be connected to the protective garment so as to allow these other devices to be used in combination with the protective garment. These multi-piece type garments, however, require a strong and continuous seal between the garment and the objects attached to the garment. Still further, to be of maximum utility, the sealing mechanism used in these multi-piece garments should be easy to manipulate while the user is wearing the protective garment.
Some seals and sealing mechanisms that connect protective garment components together are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,609 discloses a garment having a protective over-garment, gloves, and over-boots and a sealing mechanism that produces an air tight barrier between the gloves and the over-garment or between the over-boots and the over-garment. In this garment arrangement, each connection point or interface between the gloves, the over-boots and the over-garment includes an annular drawstring interface and a dilating elastomeric sheath. An airtight seal between the various components is made by first drawing-up and tightening one of the components, such as the over-garment, onto or over a portion of another component, such as the gloves. The elastomeric sheath is then extended or stretched over the connection between the over-garment and gloves, for example, to thereby constrict the elastomeric sheath over the interface, which causes the elastomeric sheath to compressively engage the interface and the user's body and create an air-tight barrier at the interface.
While known seals and sealing mechanisms typically work well for their intended purpose, these and other sealing Mechanisms have limitations and problems that make their adaptation for certain uses difficult, if not impossible. For example, some of the seals or sealing mechanisms lack a positive locking mechanism that provides the user with the knowledge that a proper seal has been made. This positive locking feature is important in particularly hazardous environments and in environments in which the user may not be able to detect a leak in the garment during use. Similarly, some of the known seals or sealing mechanisms are unable to create the necessary quality of seal required for certain hazardous or potentially hazardous environments. Still further, some known sealing mechanisms, such as the sealing mechanism of U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,609, require the user to perform multiple and different sealing steps, which makes it more likely that an airtight seal will not be obtained during assembly of the garment. Additionally, such seals may be compromised during use by movements of the wearer, resulting in slow leaks during use of the garment.